A call from a former Green Devil quarterback

The year was 1961. It was Plaquemine High’s year. They won a state gridiron championship. It was the last time an Iberville Parish 11-man football team won a state championship until White Castle High did it last year.

Quarterback on that standout PHS club for the late L.J. Raymond was Don Brooks. After the run to the state title game, Brooks and the famed Richard Twins, Roland and Ronald, were named Prep All-Americans.

Brooks has been away from Plaquemine for a number of years, visiting infrequently. He has lived in California and New York for years and now resides in California. In honor of that 1961 gridiron season, 50 years ago, Brooks put together a video with photos from the school yearbook. He dedicated to Coach Raymond, who passed away a few short months ago.

The video can be seen on You Tube. Go to the site and search for plaqueminehighschoolfootballchampions1961

It has some press clippings from our local newspaper, several snaps he took of the yearbook, including some of the pretty Homecoming ladies of that year.

“I have not heard anything about a fifty-year reunion, but would really like to be a part of one in Plaquemine. I heard about Coach Raymond passing recently. He was a fine man and a great coach,” commented Brooks.

When I told him that assistant coach Frank Ferachi was still around and in good health, he was delighted. I gave him Frank’s home telephone number so they could talk.

Brooks has lived an interesting life since leaving University of Southwestern La. (now ULL), where he had a football scholarship. He went to acting school and became an actor for many years. He also teaches acting classes and has directed. He has been in several movies, television shows, commercials, and has done stage acting and directing. He was an off and on actor on the long running soap operas General Hospital and Days of Our Lives. Some of the films and television series he appeared in were “Baretta”, “Ruby and Oswald”, “Born Again, the Charles Colson Story”, “Trapper John”, and “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo”. He has directed six plays and produced one.

He changed his name to “Dean Brooks” when he got into acting, but has never lost his identity of being a native of Plaquemine and a quarterback for Coach Raymond’s Green Devil gridiron team.

Some information about his career can be found at www.deanbrooks.info

It is quite amazing, but “Dean Brooks” is not the only Plaquemine High quarterback to become a film actor. He was followed in recent years by a young man named Murano. Brooks was surprised to hear such a small town school would have two football players go in the same unusual career field.

A line drawing picture of Brooks can be found on the PHS Athletic Wall of Honor at the school.